spikestoyiuDo all of these cocksuckers get their hair cut at the same spot or what?

BaldrThe obvious question, which Stewart sort of halfway stumbles onto at the end is, "If your show is fair and balanced, why does the allstars commentary section consist of two conservatives and one moderate liberal, except on Sundays, when it consists of three conservatives and one moderate liberal".

AnaxagorasIf only you had conducted the interview. Then that Fox guy would've totally gotten his comeuppance.

Stewart asked him variations of that same question like four times and Baier answered the same way every time, by claiming mitigating circumstances. "Oh, the Bush interview was three hours and Obama was 15 minutes, and that was why Bush's was softball and Obama's was hostile." "The opinion guys are different from the news guys and the news side doesn't have an agenda and that is clear to the viewers." Etcetera.

Would asking a fifth version of the question perhaps finally done the trick?

Look, whatever Baier believes about Fox being deceptive and disingenuous is beside the point, the dude is simply in no position to admit it. Fox will continue to use silly arguments to claim they are a legitimate news organization despite all evidence to the contrary, and their employees need to continue to toe the company line.

So occasionally we get Jon Stewart to call out a Fox talking head to his face on teevee. And that's all we get and that's all we'll ever get. Nothing will change, except perhaps Fox will get even more extreme and more conservative over the next decade as Baby Boomers age into their seventies. Around 2025, their target demographic starts dying off and manufacturing the oppression of rich white Christians will start to look anachronistic, so at that point they will slowly start to tone down their extremism.

But that's all you are getting, loser, so suck it up.

BaldrAnaxagoras, don't be silly, we both know I would have fucked up that interview way more than John Stewart would have. I have no pretensions about my ability in the world of words. That said, I've spent a fair bit of time watching Baier's show, and I find it somewhat frustrating that anyone wouldn't be able to come up with that question after only five or six viewings.

Jangbones, I thought Brett Baier's answers to the questions of why he softballed the Bush interview, and doesn't mind being on the same channel as Glenn Beck were somewhat plausible. Most Fox News viewers would have come away from this interview thinking that Baier had wiped the floor with Stewart.

You can argue back and forth about bias all day long. You can't argue math. Two conservative commentators, one centric liberal commentator. That's all he needed to say.

jangbonesFor one, I personally do not use the opinions of Fox News viewers to impact my perception of reality.

Anyway, this is what Baier undoubtedly would have said had Jonny BeefStew asked him about the commentators;

1) "A lot of liberals don't want to contribute to Fox because they are closed-minded and we don't suck up to them like CNN and MSNBC does."

2) "The numbers change all the time, sometimes we have two liberal commentators and one conservative commentator on."

3) "I think WHOEVER is actually a centrist and not a conservative, so the panel is actually even."

In other words, bullshit that passes as a reasonable answer under the shallow level of scrutiny that television provides.

Regardless, Fox will continue to claim they are an objective news organization even though they are partisan and one-sided. Its obvious that no matter what questions Stewart asked, Baier would squirm a bit but still vomit the company line.

The objective evidence of Fox's pervasive bias is overwhelming, yet for whatever reason, the current incarnation of American Conservatives have trained themselves to look at "X" and honestly believe it is "Y". So why waste time arguing and picking nits? Laugh at them all you can, endure the damage they do to this country, and try to keep sane as they try to install a homogenized and plutocratic vision of America that never truly existed and never ever will.

BaldrHow many times have you watched Special Report? These aren't hard questions to answer.

1) So you can't find anyone who's willing to be paid massive amounts of money to express their opinions on television for fifteen minutes a day?

2) What was the distribution last week? Last month?

3) Really? Then why is he a regular contributor to the National Review, and a member of the republican party?

Stewart didn't have much trouble wiping the floor with Jim Cramer while he played the same game. I'm sorry about three-starring your submission, but I didn't think it was at the same level as some of his other stuff.

BUT I just think that had the conversation gone the way you are suggesting, Baier would have hrrmphed and hawwed and hemmed and given some answer that sounded plausible perhaps on some shallow level, but he would never ever admit that his show is slanted in any way even though it is. He has to as long as he wants to keep working there. Light cannot find its way in. If Stewart would have pursued it he would have just kept saying that lies were facts until the segment was over.

I understand your point but I think you are giving the medium too much credit. Again, the reason that there are so many spurious and unsubstantiated (and frankly, ridiculous) political claims on cable television is that you can't realistically follow anything up, you can't substantiate facts, you cannot truthfully refute anything but the barest, baldest lies and misstatements.

I work in television. "These are professional opinions here!"

I think that Stewart was letting Republicans say a lot of unchallenged bullshit on TDS for a few months...Michael Steele and Donald Rumsfeld come to mind. However, I thought he redeemed himself in this interview...but what the fuck do I know?

Anaxagoras"Look, you weren't at ground zero on 9/11. I was. And I can tell you for certain that German nazi Arab liberal muslim terrorists did it. You could see the portrait of Allah on top of a swastika on the plane wings."